By GiveGrove• 12 min read • Published 2026
Picture a school foundation's third planning meeting for its spring auction. The venue is booked, 250 guests are expected, the donated items are already piling up in someone's garage, and then the question lands that nobody wants to own: which platform are we using this year?
The best fundraising event platforms of 2026 are GiveGrove, OneCause, Givebutter, Zeffy, Greater Giving and Handbid, with Qgiv, BetterWorld and ClickBid also worth a look. GiveGrove is our pick for most small and mid-size nonprofits running galas, auctions and community events, because it puts ticketing, auctions, Fund-a-Need and peer-to-peer fundraising under one event with no platform fee option and real people on call during the event. OneCause and Greater Giving suit large galas with big budgets. Givebutter and Zeffy are strong if online donations matter more to you than event night.
Yes, this is GiveGrove's blog, so you know where our bias sits. We've tried to make the comparison fair anyway, with each platform's pricing, strengths and trade-offs laid out so you can check our work. We'll keep coming back to that school foundation, because its auction is a good test of what each platform does well.
What should you look for in a fundraising event platform?
A good fundraising event platform handles the whole night in one place: tickets and registration, check-in, silent and live auction bidding, a Fund-a-Need or paddle raise, donations, and checkout at the end. The best ones also keep the fees predictable and have someone who answers the phone when the Wi-Fi drops at 8:15 p.m.
Cost is where most comparisons go wrong. Platforms charge in four different ways: a percentage of what you raise, a flat annual or per-event fee, optional donor tips in place of a fee, or some mix of the three. Card processing (usually around 2.9% plus 30 cents) is a separate line on almost all of them. For our school foundation, a 4% fee on a $60,000 auction is $2,400, while a $3,000 annual package costs about the same whether the auction raises $20,000 or $120,000. Run your own numbers at last year's total and at your goal.
Past price, these are the questions worth asking every vendor:
Is there a real live auction and Fund-a-Need tool, or only a silent auction page?
How do guests check out? Auto-charging winning bids to a card on file saves an hour-long line at the end of the night, but some platforms add a fee when you do it.
Can supporters fundraise for you? Peer-to-peer pages and team voting let a sponsor's employees or a classroom of parents raise money before the event even starts.
What do you see during the event? Real-time totals help an auctioneer or emcee push at the right moment.
Who helps on event night, and does onsite support cost extra?
If you're weighing tip-funded platforms in particular, our breakdown of zero-fee fundraising platforms goes deeper on how those models make money.
Fundraising event platforms compared: 2026 at a glance
The table below compares the six platforms on pricing and event-night tools, using our school foundation's $60,000 auction as the yardstick. Platform fees only; card processing of roughly 2.9% plus 30 cents applies on most platforms unless donors cover it.
| Platform | Pricing model | Platform fees on a $60,000 event | Live auction and paddle raise | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GiveGrove 🍋 | Free, No-fee tips model or 4% capped at $4,000 | $0 on GiveBack + pays your organization a percentage of tips, $2,400 on Classic | Built in, including Fund-a-Need | Small and mid-size galas, auctions and peer-to-peer events |
| OneCause | Pay-as-you-go or annual package | About $3,200 pay-as-you-go, or $2,995 a year | Built in | Large galas with paid onsite support |
| Givebutter | Free with tips, 3% with tips off | $0 with tips, plus 3% on auto-charged auction wins | Silent and online bidding | Year-round online giving with a CRM |
| Zeffy | Free, funded by donor tips | $0 | Basic auction tools | Very small, volunteer-run events |
| Greater Giving | Custom quote | Ask for a quote | Built in | Established annual galas |
| Handbid | Flat annual fee | From $1,396 a year | Built in, including paddle raise | Auction-heavy events wanting a fixed cost |
Prices as of October 2026 from each platform's published pricing or third-party listings; confirm current rates before you sign.
1. GiveGrove: best overall for small and mid-size fundraising events
GiveGrove is a fundraising event platform built around the event itself. Ticketing, silent and live auctions, Fund-a-Need, peer-to-peer fundraising and voting, donation pages, live streaming and real-time reporting all sit inside one event page, so guests register, bid and give in the same place.
GiveGrove started in South Bend, Indiana, in 2016, when the team built a registration and donation system for the Center for the Homeless and its annual gala, the county's largest single-night fundraiser. GiveGrove is still designed with that kind of customer in mind: development teams of two or three people who don't have time to learn enterprise software. At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Elkhart County's BBQ & Brew Fest, for example, 26 local teams raised more than $100,000 through $1 peer-to-peer votes (read the full story).
How much does GiveGrove cost?
GiveGrove offers two pricing models, and you can switch between them mid-event:
GiveBack Guarantee: no platform fee. Donors see a suggested, optional tip at checkout or when bidding, and GiveGrove sends up to 10% of each tip back to your organization. Winning auction bids charged automatically at close carry no platform fee either.
Classic: 4% of funds raised with no tip prompt. The fee stops once an event passes $100,000, so the most you'll pay is $4,000 per event.
Card processing is 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction on both models, and you choose whether donors must cover it, can choose to, or your organization absorbs it. There are no contracts, subscriptions or upfront costs, and payouts arrive every two business days.
For our school foundation's $60,000 auction, GiveBack would cost nothing in platform fees, and Classic would come to $2,400. Donors cover the vast majo
What GiveGrove does well
The biggest advantage is that the event-night tools are first-class, not an add-on to a donation form. Live auction and Fund-a-Need are built in, and auto-charging winners doesn't trigger a surprise fee on GiveBack. The team is also on call during your event, with a help button on every page. One longtime customer, a seasoned nonprofit leader, told our founder GiveGrove was the only event platform she'd looked at that "doesn't feel predatory."
Where GiveGrove falls short
GiveGrove is a smaller company, so you won't find hundreds of public reviews the way you will for OneCause or Givebutter. It also doesn't absorb card processing the way Zeffy does, so donors or your organization will cover that 2.9% plus 30 cents.
Best for: schools, churches, social service agencies and community nonprofits running galas, auctions and peer-to-peer events that want strong event tools without a contract.
2. OneCause: best for large galas with a budget for onsite support
OneCause (formerly BidPal, now part of Bonterra) is one of the most established names in mobile bidding, and it shows in the reviews: Bonterra OneCause holds a 4.7 out of 5 on G2 across nearly 500 reviews. Its auction, ticketing, peer-to-peer and text-to-give tools are mature, and its onsite event teams are well regarded at big black-tie galas.
OneCause's pricing takes more digging. It has listed a pay-as-you-go option starting at $200 plus a 5% fee on funds raised, aimed at organizations raising $50,000 or less a year, and an annual Professional Auction & Event package at $2,995. Larger organizations get a custom quote. On our school foundation's $60,000 auction, pay-as-you-go would run about $3,200, so the annual package is the likelier fit.
Smaller teams sometimes find it hard to justify the cost. One reviewer from a small rural hospital foundation wrote on GetApp that the price, especially onsite auction support, is a stretch, even though the platform raised their auction revenue.
Best for: larger nonprofits and hospital or university foundations running high-dollar galas that want a well-known vendor and paid onsite help.
3. Givebutter: best for year-round online giving with a built-in CRM
Givebutter is a free, tip-funded fundraising platform with donation forms, event ticketing, silent auctions, peer-to-peer pages and a donor CRM in one account. Nonprofit staff love how easy it is to set up, and the free core product is a real draw for small organizations.
With tips turned on, Givebutter charges no platform fee and covers card processing through its Givebutter Guarantee. Turn tips off and a 3% platform fee plus standard processing applies. Auctions have one catch worth knowing before event night: when you auto-charge winning bids, a 3% fee applies whether tips are on or not, with no cap. A paid CRM tier, Givebutter Plus, starts at $29 a month.
For our school foundation, Givebutter would handle tickets and the silent auction well, and the auto-charge fee on $25,000 of auction sales would come to $750. The live auction is harder. Givebutter is built around web and silent bidding, and one reviewer on GetApp noted it's not the platform they'd use for live auctions.
Best for: nonprofits that raise most of their money online all year and run a simpler event or silent auction on the side.
4. Zeffy: best free option for very small nonprofits
Zeffy is a fully free fundraising platform. It charges no platform fee, no ticketing fee and no card processing fee, and it makes its money only from optional donor tips at checkout. Ticketing, online auctions, raffles, peer-to-peer campaigns, memberships and basic donor management are all included.
Zeffy holds a 4.8 out of 5 on Capterra across more than 470 reviews, most of them praising how easy and genuinely free it is.
Where reviewers push back is on depth. G2 lists "missing features" as the most frequent issue in Zeffy reviews, and one Capterra reviewer put it plainly: most features are simplified and don't always fit their needs. Our school foundation could sell tickets and run its auction on Zeffy at no cost. Before committing, it would want to test whether Zeffy's simpler tools keep up with a fast live auction and a paddle raise.
Best for: volunteer-run nonprofits, booster clubs and small events where saving every dollar matters more than event-night features.
5. Greater Giving: best for long-running galas with established processes
Greater Giving is a veteran event and auction platform that combines registration, mobile bidding, online donations and its own payment processing. Many gala committees have used it for years, and its reviewers tend to be loyal: it averages 4.4 out of 5 on Capterra across 97 reviews, with high marks for customer support.
Greater Giving doesn't publish pricing, so you'll need to request a quote. One recent reviewer said it's easy to use and to teach to volunteers, while also wishing the registration side felt more modern.
For our school foundation, Greater Giving would be a solid, proven choice if a board member already knows it. The unknown price makes it harder to compare against platforms that post their fees.
Best for: established organizations with a long-running annual gala and a team that values a familiar, proven system.
6. Handbid: best for auction-heavy events that want a flat annual price
Handbid is a mobile-first auction platform with a native bidding app, silent and live auctions, paddle raises, ticketing and peer-to-peer fundraising. It's used by schools and nonprofits, and also by universities, pro sports teams and commercial auction houses.
Handbid charges a flat yearly fee instead of a percentage. Its entry plan, The Big Event, covers one auction or peer-to-peer event a year and starts at $1,396 per year, with higher tiers for unlimited events. Capterra reviewers often call the price reasonable, though some say they'd prefer event-only pricing or fewer paid extras.
For our school foundation, a flat $1,396 would be cheaper than a 4% fee once the auction passes about $35,000, and the guest app is polished. You do pay it whether the event raises $15,000 or $150,000, and it's a commitment for the year.
Best for: organizations whose event revolves around the auction and who want a fixed cost they can budget for.
Other fundraising event platforms worth a look
A few more platforms come up often enough in nonprofit circles that they deserve a mention, even if they didn't make our top six.
BetterWorld is a free, tip-funded auction platform. Its Free Forever plan charges no platform fee, and it asks supporters for an optional contribution on winning bids instead.
ClickBid focuses on auctions, with ticketing, silent and live auction management, paddle raises and text-to-give. Reviewers on Software Advice often describe it as one of the more affordable auction tools, and its annual plans are listed starting around $795.
Qgiv, now sold as Bloomerang Fundraising, pairs online giving and event tools with Bloomerang's donor CRM. It makes the most sense for organizations already using Bloomerang to manage donors.
Which fundraising event platform is right for your event?
The right platform depends mostly on what happens in the room. If your event has a live auction, a paddle raise or a peer-to-peer competition, pick a platform where those tools are built in. If it's mostly tickets and a silent auction, a free or low-cost tool may be all you need.
Our school foundation is the classic middle case: 250 guests, a silent auction that closes at 8 p.m., a short live auction with an auctioneer, and a Fund-a-Need for new classroom technology. A free platform could sell the tickets. Where it would start to strain is the last hour, when the auctioneer wants a running total on the screen and 250 people want to pay and get home. That's the scenario GiveGrove was built for, and the one where a capped or no-fee model keeps more of the night's total with the school.
A hospital foundation hosting 800 guests in a hotel ballroom has a different problem. It may want a vendor that sends a full onsite crew, and OneCause or Greater Giving will happily quote that. A food pantry selling 60 tickets to a chili cook-off, meanwhile, probably doesn't need auction software at all, and Zeffy will cost it nothing.
Whatever you lean toward, ask for a demo and click through checkout as if you were a guest. You'll learn more about fees and friction in five minutes than from any pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
What is a fundraising event platform?
A fundraising event platform is software that runs a nonprofit's event from registration to checkout. Most handle ticketing, guest check-in, mobile bidding for silent and live auctions, donations and payment collection, and many add peer-to-peer fundraising and real-time reporting. GiveGrove, OneCause and Handbid are examples.
How much does fundraising event software cost?
Fundraising event software ranges from free to several thousand dollars per year. Tip-funded platforms like Zeffy, BetterWorld and GiveGrove's GiveBack model charge no platform fee. Percentage-based plans typically run 3% to 5% of funds raised, and flat annual packages from Handbid and OneCause start around $1,400 and $3,000. Card processing is usually extra.
Are free fundraising platforms really free?
Most free fundraising platforms charge your organization nothing and earn money from optional tips donors add at checkout. Some add fees in specific cases, such as Givebutter's 3% on auto-charged auction wins or when tips are turned off. Read the fine print on auctions, card readers and recurring gifts before you commit.
What's the best fundraising platform for a silent auction?
For a silent auction on its own, GiveGrove, Handbid, BetterWorld and ClickBid are all strong choices, and Zeffy works for small, simple auctions at no cost. If the silent auction is part of a larger gala with a live auction and paddle raise, choose a platform like GiveGrove or OneCause that runs all three from one guest account.
Can one platform handle both peer-to-peer fundraising and an in-person event?
Yes. GiveGrove, OneCause, Handbid and Givebutter all support peer-to-peer pages alongside event ticketing. GiveGrove also supports peer-to-peer voting, where supporters buy votes for teams or contestants, which works well for "Dancing with the Stars" style galas and team competitions.
Choosing your platform for 2026
Every platform on this list has nonprofits who swear by it, and the right one for you depends on the size of your event, how much of it happens live, and how you'd rather pay. We'd love for GiveGrove to be that platform. If you're planning a gala, auction or peer-to-peer event for the 2026 season and want to see how it would run on GiveGrove, reach out and we'll walk you through it with your own event in mind.
Thanks for trusting GiveGrove with your fundraisers!
The GiveGrove Team 🍋
A Code Works company
GiveGrove makes events and auctions for fundraising easy. Email info@givegrove.com for more info. Click here to sign up for our mailing list.
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